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RINGWORM: 

ITS CONSTITUTIONAL NATURE 
AND CURE. 



J. COMPTON BURNETT, WL.JD. 



II faut, pour la realisation de la maladie, la reunion de deux fac- 
teurs ; le premier necessaire, est le gernie iufectieux, le 
second, non moins indispensable, est la connivence de l'or- 
ganisme qui niettra a la disposition du gernie P ensemble des 
conditions physiques et chimiques qui constituent sou milieu 
vivant. A cette condition, et a cette condition seulemeut, la 
maladie sera constitute. — Bouchard (Les Microbes Patho- 
genes). 



PHILADELPHIA : 



BOERICKB & TAFKL. 
\ 



hOHfrx 



M' 



^> 






^ 



COPYRIGHT iSQ2, 

BY 

BCERICKE i TAFEL 




T. B. & H. B. COCHRAN, PRINTERS, 
LANCASTER, PA. 




PREFACE. 



Some years since I published a small 
volume under the title of Diseases of 
the Skin from the Organismic Stand- 
point, and in it I seek to show that the 
so-called diseases of the skin are for the 
most part diseases of the constitutions 
of the persons, and not diseases of their 
skins. Since that time I have had ample 
opportunities of making observations on 
the true nature of skin diseases, and 
these observations tend almost uniformly 
to prove the correctness of the view. 

Gout in the big toe is not a disease 
of the said toe ; acne on the shoulders of 
young persons is not a disease of the 



4 Preface. 

skin of the shoulders ; neither is a yellow- 
coated tongue a disease of the tongue. 

The disease under consideration in 
this tiny treatise is one of the most 
characteristic, and its outward nature is 
indisputably parasitic ; yet a careful 
survey of the young individuals that get 
it shows that they all have very peculiar 
characteristics — serological, cutaneous, 
and glandular. 

Ringworm inspires disgust ; more or 
less almost all skin diseases do that, and 
yet a perfectly clear skin may enclose a 
very diseased organism, and a skin- 
diseased person may have a relatively 
much better constitution, and have ail 
his internal organs in a relatively much 
better state, his cutaneous manifestations 
notwithstanding. 

Indeed, I would almost go so far as to 
say that many cutaneous manifestations 
betoken, in a certain sense, constitutional 



Preface. 5 

power, — in the sense, namely, that such 
organism has the power to determine 
its diseases to the periphery, to its out- 
side. It other words, the disease being 
of the organism, it is a smaller evil to 
have it outside on the skin than to have 
it inside in a given organ. Gouty inflam - 
mation of the big toe is one thing ; the 
same process in the stomach, quite 
another ; therefore, the disease being 
given, it is the stronger person who 
throws said disease into his skin ; but that 
does -not make it a disease of the skin. 
Old physicians who used to set up issues 
in their patients' flesh, and maintain 
them there, knew well what they were 
about. 

In regard to ringworm I am of opinion 
that absolutely healthy children do not 
and cannot, catch it. Before they can 
catch ringworm it is essential that they 
be in tainted health in some way, for 



6 Preface. 

otherwise they could not supply to the 
parasitic fungi the food which they need 
to live and thrive on, and to continue 
theirpropagation. On careful reflection, 
this I believe will have to be conceded, 
and this the following pages illustrate 
clinically. 

You cannot grow a common mush- 
room except under given conditions, 
neither can you the trichophyton of 
ringworm. 

The trichophyton is not the disease 
itself, bu t i ts organic scavenger. Cure the 
internal disease, and this scavenger dies. 

J. COMPTON BURNETT. 

86 Wimpole Street, 

Cavandish Square, W., 

August^ 1892 



RINGWORM : 

HERPES S. TINEA TONSURANS. 



/ T V HAT Ringworm (Herpes S. 
tinea tonsurans) is due to a 
specific fungus is one of the certain- 
ties of practical medicine ; that the 
recognised treatment of the same is 
by external applications with the 
view of killing the fungi, no one 
needs to be told. Hitherto its medi- 
cability by internal remedies has 
been admitted by a certain section 
of the homoeopathic school of medi- 



8 The Constitutional Nature 

cine. Indeed the more staunch Hah- 
nemannians have always fought for 
this view, and time and again have 
proved its practicability ; on this 
point I have long been at one with 
these more staunch of the Hahne- 
lnannians, and that simply because 
I have been able to verify their 
views clinically. For years, in 
common with many others, I have 
been constantly in the habit of 
treating and curing ringworm by 
internal remedies with relative suc- 
cess. For all that I have thus far 
never had anything approaching 
to a clear notion of its true nature, 
and some of the cases would persist 
in not getting well ; and this lack of 
a definite idea of its nature, and also 
the uncertainty of its cure, is I 
believe fully shared by those who 



and Care of Ringworm. 9 

have thus habitually considered 
and treated ringworm constitution- 
ally . It is due, let us say, to psora, 
but we have no clear conception of 
what psora is. Psora needs to be 
split up into its component parts, 
no easy task ; it roots in the vague, 
its trunk and boughs run away into 
anywhere. The psora of the 
homoeopaths seems somehow true, 
but it has no proper beginning, no 
definite course, and ends in patho- 
logical chaos. Perhaps we study it 
in Hahnemann, and in the best 
writers on the subject, and after 
doing our best to master it, we rise 
from our studies with no clear idea, 
and we finally decide to abandon 
psora as an intangible myth, and 
then we proceed with our clinical 
work ; but, before long, we stumble 



io The Constitutional Nature 

against a very tangible something, 
and on looking at the stumbling 
block, we find writ large upon it 
the word Psora! Have I then 
hit upon a solution of the psora- 
problem ? No ; but if we can- 
not break the whole faggot, we 
may perchance break one stick 
of it. 

Hughes, in his Manual of Thera- 
peutics,§a.y§ that Herpes circinnatus 
(ringw r orm of the surface) is usu- 
ally treated, and with fair success, 
by Sepia, but that when the proving 
of Tellurium produced so similar an 
eruption, he (Dr. Hughes) followed 
Dr. Metcalf in prescribing it instead 
of Sepia for this disorder, and has 
never failed to cure it speedily 
thereby. 

Of ringworm proper of the 



and Cure of Ringworm. n 

scalp, Hughes thus writes: — 
{Manual of Therapeutics, p. 520) 
u That this disease is, when recent, 
amenable to internal remedies 
alone seems to disprove the theory 
of its parasitic origin. The medi- 
cine for it is Sepia, at about the 6th 
dilution ; but if this fails, you must 
resort to some local parasiticide, of 
w^hich I suppose a solution of Sul- 
phurous acid would be about the 
best." 

Some time since I published a 
small volume, entitled Five Years' 
Experience i?i the New Cure of 
Consumption by its own Virus, and 
the fifty -third illustrative case 
therein runs thus (p. 95) : — 

The influence of the virus upon 
the teeth and their growth and 
appearance is very striking. What 



12 The Constitutional Nature 

I regard as tubercular teeth are 
those — often more or less rudiment- 
ary — with holes in their external 
surface. Whether this is a recog- 
nised pathological fact I do not hap- 
pen to know, perhaps is it not. But 
it is an important clinical observa- 
tion. I recognized it clinically 
some three years since, while treat- 
ing a highly strumous lady with 
many scars and glands in her neck. 
While under the virus I noticed an 
extraordinary improvement in her 
teeth, they became a nice color, and 
the numerous superficial holes 
cleaned and partially disappeared. 
It was even more apparent and 
striking in the following case : — A 
girl of ii, with ringworm on the 
scalp ; the lymphatic glands every- 
where palpable, and her ribs very 



and Cure of Ringworm. 13 

flat; strawberry tongue; a bad 
cough, worse at night; although 11 
years old she had practically no 
teeth, that is to say, they were 
rudimentary and not above the 
level of her gums. All her 
mother's brothers and sisters had 
died of consumption ; after three 
months' treatment with our ordi- 
nary remedies we had made but 
small progress, and then I kept 
patient altogether five month un- 
der the bacillic virus, with the re- 
sult that her palpable glans ceased 
to be palpable ; her ringworm dis- 
appeared ; her ribs took on a better 
form ; her breathing was notably 
better ; and, mirabile dictn, her 
teeth had grown. She is now well, 
and has a mouthful of teeth which 
are quite passible. It may be noted 



14 The Constitutional Nature 

that the ringworm had disappeared, 
and in respect to this nasty thing I 
find it generally disappears under 
the influence of the virus. I learned 
this very important fact also purely 
clinically in the following manner: 
— A whole family of children of dif- 
ferent ages had had ringworm for a 
full year, and the mother told me 
on bringing them that she had 
already spent over £60 on medical 
fees for its cure, but in vain. All 
known remedies had been applied 
by the local doctors in two neigh- 
bourhoods, and several skin special- 
ists had worked hard at their poor 
heads, but to no avail. Their heads 
were shaved and their scalps were 
well scoured night and morning 
but still the ringworm persisted. 
Finally, a distant cottage had been 



and Cure of Ringworm. 15 

hired, and the afflicted ones were 
there isolated, and the services of a 
noted ringworm curer of the non- 
qualified variety had been secured; 
but these also failing, they were put 
under ray care. I have had no 
great cause to complain of the ho- 
moeopathic treatment of ringworm 
with our antipsorics — indeed, quite 
the contrary — but it is apt to be a bit 
tedious at times. Now their mother 
had been cured by me of incipient 
tuberculosis with the virus, and it 
occurred to me that ringworm 
might be a manifestation of the 
tubercular kind,* and so I forthwith 
put the whole lot under the virus, 
administered in the usual way, 
internally in dynamic dose ; this I 

* I find Tilbury Fox and Startin were of this 
opinion ; so are, doubtless, many others. 



1 6 The Constitutional Nature 



did all the more readily, as they all 
had numerous superficial palpable 
glands. And the result ? In a very 
few weeks thev were all well of 
ringworm and of the glands, and 
have thriven splendidly ever since. 
Something like a dozen bad ring- 
worm cases have come to me since 
then, and they were all quickly 
cured by the virus, and in each case 
the general state has been greatly 
improved. No doubt some bacterio- 
logists w T ill cultivate, some fine day, 
the germs of the ringworm; and 
astound the world with their subcu- 
taneous injections. It is well that 
medical men should approach each 
subject from a different standpoint, 
as they serve to correct one 
another. 

Since then I have systematically 



and Cure of Ringworm. 17 



subjected almost all my ringworm 
cases to the influence of Bacillinum 
in higli potency and infrequently 
administered, and of this later 
experience I will now proceed to 
treat. Ringworm is a fairly com- 
mon complaint, and sends terror 
into the hearts of masters and mis- 
tresses of houses ; and school- 
masters and school mistresses give 
but a short shrift to any unfortu- 
nate wights who show on their 
scalps or necks, or elsewhere, any- 
thing approaching to a scaly, ring- 
like patch. They know well that 
if it spreads, or is reported to the 
children's homes, the depletion of 
their school is imminent. " No 
Doctor; I am very fond of Gerald, 
he is my own nephew, and a dear 
good boy, and his father is in India, 

B 



t8 The Constitutional Nature 

but I cannot take him back to my 
school unless you give me a writ- 
ten certificate, and that round patch 
on his neck is quite cured!" The 
very Prince of Darkness is less 
dreaded in a school than ringworm. 
Definite information, therefore, on 
the subject of the nature and cure 
of ringworm will be welcome to not 
a few. Moreover, it marks a new 
era in the treatment of the disease. 
When I say it marks a new era 
in the treatment of the disease, I 
should say that for the first time it 
gives us a clue to its aetiology, 
pathology, and, best of all, to its 
really radical cure. The meta- 
morphosis wrought in the bad or 
poor constitutions of ringworm 
patients subjected to the influence 
of Bacillinum (high , and mark well , 



and Ctire of Ringworm. 19 

in very infrequent doses) is simply 
beautiful, and a delight to the heart 
of the physician who loves his 
work for its own sake, and the 
more so if he has a fair share of 
the milk of human kindness in him. 

I do not agree with those who 
consider that the amenability of 
ringworm to internal treatment — 
say to Sulphur, Sepia, or Tellurium 
— militates against its parasitic 
nature.* There can be no question 
of its parasitic nature, however it 
may be cured. We must read the 
facts thus : the disease is parasitic 
in its external manifestation, and 
if this external manifestation — the 
scaly, annular patches — be the 

* I think Erasmus Wilson could never be 
brought to believe in the parasitic nature of 
ringworm. 



20 The Constitutional Nature 

disease, and the whole of the 
disease, then, of course, internal 
treatment must be regarded as 
little less than silly, and the only 
sensible thing to do is to apply to 
the ringworm parts something 
that shall kill the fungi and there- 
fore cure the disease. 

Well, few need to be told that 
the task of treating ringworm 
successfully by external means,//., 
killing the fungi, is so unsatis- 
factory, so uncertain, so tedious, so 
often an entire failure, that I well 
understand the state of mind of an 
eminent London skin specialist, 
who six weeks ago exclaimed to 
Lady X., who wished to known 
how long it would be before her 
little boy would be quite cured 
of his ringworm, and fit to re- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 21 

turn to school, " How long? 
Heaven knows, I don't; perhaps 
by the end of next term, I really 
cannot say I" 

And thus it is : the external 
treatment of ringworm is wrong, 
because it only deals with the 
external manifestations of the in- 
ternal organismic ailment. Ring- 
worm is an Internal Disease 
of the organism having for its out- 
ward sign the ringworm consisting 
of fungi thriving in a certain 
order : the fungi are the guests of 
the diseased host; cure the host's 
diseased state, and the fungus — the 
ringworm — dies off from lack of a 
proper medium. Ringworm may 
be regarded as mould of the skin, 
analogous to the mould on cheese, 
bits of bread, oranges, or lemons, 



2 2 The Constitutional Nature 

and warm moisture favours its 
development. Mould}' products 
love darkness rather than light — a 
sort of half light,moisture, warmth, 
and hiddenness ; decaying organic 
matter is their food and life, and I 
am satisfied that those who get 
ringworm have in their scalps some- 
thing whereon the ringworm mould 
can live, thrive, and multiply. 

Inveterate Case of Herpes Ton- 
surans, or Ringworm. 

A lad of eight years of age was 
brought to me at the end of April 
1 89 1, to be treated for ringworm, 
under a very severe form of which 
he had been labouring for over a 
year. At the date in question it was 
nearly all over his body, scalp, neck, 
upper extremities, in large numbers 



and Cure of Ringworm. 23 

of rings, varying in size from that 
of a sixpenny piece to that of a 
halfpenny. His scalp is one mass 
of scabs and scales extending all 
down his neck (said to have come 
from goapowder). The scalp is at 
times moist. He has no feelable 
glands in his neck, bnt those of his 
groins are like so many very small 
marbles. Sparsely strawberry-like 
tongue ; teeth yellow and decaying. 

" What have yon tried for yonr 
son?" 

" Tried! everything, bnt he gets 
worse and worse, and since that 
goapowder his head has gone like 
that." 

I am snre that any experienced 
practition er of medicine, who places 
his faith in the outside treatment of 
ringworm, recognises the pictnre 



24 The Constitutional Nature 



I am drawing as that of a type of 
ringworm cases that will not get 
well do what we will. I have 
had them myself in olden days, till 
I hated the very sight of them, with 
their closely shaven scalps that 
seemed to consist in a number of 
little exits of sticky, mattery ooze 
that then dried into scabs. Such 
was this boy's aspect, but some of 
its hideousness was covered by a 
natty, well-fitting skull-cap. 

Bacillinum C. was given for two 
months, when on the 24th June, 
I find noted that the red pips of 
his tongue were nearly gone; the 
lower half of his scalp was clean 
and healthy ; appetite better; teeth 
much cleaner and whiter. " He 
is much better in his health. " 

To continue with the same 
remedy. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 25 

July 29th, 189 1. — He is quite 
well of his ringworm, though his 
scalp is slightly scurfy, and his teeth 
still rather dirty looking. He then 
had the same remedy (1 oooth), 
whereafter the only one thing 
wrong with him was the greeny 
state of his teeth, w T hich presum- 
ably was from another aetiological 
source, and therefore not amenable 
to the bacillinic influence. A worse 
case of ringworm would, indeed, be 
hard to find: a prettier, cleaner, or 
more accurately scientific cure I do 
not ask for. When cured the boy 
was a picture, with his splendid 
crop of hair stubbles about an inch 
in length — and, moreover, in ex- 
cellent general health. 

I used no external remedies at 
all. I do not for one moment 



26 The Constitutional Nature 

suppose that the medical world 
(and still less the surgical) will 
accept my statements in regard to 
the true nature and cure of ring- 
worm; nor do I imagine that they 
will fairly try my treatment. Past 
experience teaches me, that really 
radical curing on lines of scientific 
precision with high homoeopathic 
potencies is not in harmony with 
prevailing views, and, therefore, to- 
tally incomprehensible and unac- 
ceptable to the profession at large, 
and hardly more acceptable to 
eight-tenths of the medical men 
practising homceopathically. Even 
the homoeopathic practitioner seems 
very commonly quite unable to 
crawl out of his own old ways. 
Well, medical progress will pass 
him by and go on. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 27 

The internal treatment of ring- 
worm by Sulphur, Sepia, and 
Tellurium is good, but I trust I 
shall be able in these pages to show 
that the treatment of ringworm by 
the internal administration of very 
infrequent doses of high potencies 
of Bacillinum is direct, exact, 
radical, and beyond compare; the 
remedy being pathologically ho- 
moeopathic to the whole morbid state 
and crasis of the individual, and not 
merely pathologically similar to 
the superficial cutaneous mani- 
festations. 

I have long maintained the or- 
ganismic or constitutional nature of 
skin diseases, and have time and 
again defended the thesis in medi- 
cal literature, notably in my small 
treatise, Diseases of the Skin from 



28 The Constitutional Nature 

the Organismic Stand-point, which 
is here confirmed in a manner I 
had not even hoped for, viz., direct 
clinical proof of the thesis that skin 
diseases are indeed general, con- 
stitutional, or organismic ; and, 
therefore, for very joy I will dwell 
upon ringworm pretty fully, for as 
I have discovered that it is curable 
by the administration of Bacilli- 
num in high potency, it so comes 
to pass that I can demonstrate 
clinically the organismic nature 
and cure of an affection of the skin 
that is clearly outside, to all in- 
tents and purposes, in its own life- 
history, being admittedly and de- 
monstrably due to the fungus 
known as the trichophyton. And 
this demonstration is all the more 
powerful, because we cannot deny 



and Cure of Ringworm. 29 

that the herpes tonsurans, or ring- 
worm, is due to this fungus, the 
trichophyton. No ; we cannot, of 
course, since the thing is scientific- 
ally demonstrable, as Kobner inoc- 
ulated himself and certain ani- 
mals with its products, and ring- 
worm was the result. 

Ringworm is, therefore, an ex- 
ternal disease due to an external 
infection, the trichophyton, and 
(next to the itch) the skin disease 
of which people have the very 
greatest horror. This is due, in the 
first place, to the fact that its 
favourite seat is the hairy scalp, or 
near it, though we find it often in 
other parts of the body, and it 
causes the hair to fall out in circu- 
lar patches as if eaten away in a 
ring by little worms, and hence our 



3'o The Constitutional Nature 

English name of ringworm. There- 
fore, any lady's imagination readily 
paints herself to herself with any 
number of these round "spots" 
with loss of hair, and thus an ob- 
ject to be shunned, — and ladies do 
not, as a rule, wish to be shunned. 
Next to this horror is the disgrace(!) 
of being subject to such a disgust- 
ing disease ; and, finally, it is very 
well known to be often exceedingly 
difficult of cure. 

"Oh, I have tried all our big 
doctors and two quacks, and all 
the sure cures, but M's head is 
worse than ever!" But all these 
trials were on the same lines, viz., 
external applications to kill the 
fungi. 

What first struck me was the 
fact, that in a given household in- 



and Cure of Ringworm, 31 

fected by ringworm only some of 
the members got the disease, and 
these were invariably the weaker 
ones, the weedy, and the unhealthy. 
I have known households in which 
ringworm existed in one or two of 
its members, and although towels, 
brushes and combs were used al- 
most indiscriminately, still the dis- 
ease did not spread. Conversely I 
have known others in which only 
one child would have, perhaps, just 
oiie small patch, and in which the 
greatest care was taken to prevent 
the thing spreading, yet many of 
the children finally caught the 
complaint 

I have noticed the same with 
cattle. Thus, a herd of heifers of 
my own observing two years ago, 
numbering eighteen when muster- 



32 The Constitutional Nature 

ed in the yard, were examined by 
me for ringworm, and five had it — 
three pretty badly. These five 
were relatively weedj^ specimens, 
and those that had it worse were 
the most weedy. I noticed that 
the infected ones rnbbed the dis- 
eased parts against posts and the 
like, and the healthy ones living 
with them, grazing in the same 
meadows, eating out of the same 
bins, herded with them in the same 
yard at night, all rnbbing against 
one another, and against the same 
hard objects. The healthy ones, I 
saw, remained healthy and did not 
take ringworm in the smallest de- 
gree. 

A practical cattle-kenner stand- 
ing by was questioned by me as to 
this ringworm. u Oh," said he, "the 
healthy, strong ones will not get it." 



and Cure of Ringworm, 33 

" And what do you do to cure 
the diseased ones?" " Oh, that's 
nothing ; keep them dry, litter the 
yard well, feed them well, and they 
will all get well of the ringworm 
as soon as they get strong" 

I took particular notice of this 
herd for many months, and found, 
indeed, that the ringwormy ones 
mended of their ringworm exactly 
in proportion to their general im- 
provement, and in the end only 
one remained unimproved, and that 
one had always been the most 
weedy, and it was thought that she 
would die. I had no further oppor- 
tunity of observing the herd, but I 
had seen quite enough to satisfy 
myself that strong, healthy heifers 
do not get ringworm although ex- 
posed to the infection closely and 

c 



34 The Constitutional Nature 



constantly, and those that have it 
get rid of it in direct proportion to 
the improvement in their general 
condition. In other words, the 
ringworm fungi cannot live and 
thrive in really healthy animals, 
and the ill condition of those that 
have the disease is not a conse- 
quence of the disease, but a neces- 
sary antecedent condition of the 
animals before the trichophyton 
can thrive. 

Whether ringworm in itself is 
beneficial or hurtful, I am unable to 
say with certainty, but incline 
strongly to the belief that it may be 
beneficial. When I say that I incline 
strongly to the belief that it 
may be beneficial, I mean that the 
presence of the fungi being sequen- 
tial to internal ill-conditionedness, 



and Cure of Ringworm. 35 



and being on the outside of the 
economy, may live on what harms 
that individual, and thus determine 
the hurtful matter from the within 
to the outside, thus acting as liv- 
ing derivatives. 

Inquiring of my practical cattle- 
kenner whether the men who tend 
ringwormy cattle catch the disease 
or not, he said, — " Oh, yes, some- 
times, but not as a rule." 

The man who attended to this 
particular herd of heifers did catch 
the disease; and I found on ex- 
amining him that he was phthisi- 
cally disposed, he was very dusky, 
he tanned unduly in the sun, was 
morose and taciturn, and always 
felt tired and weary. I found, 
further, that he had had to give up 
a good situation in a large town, 



36 The Constitutional Nature 

and had been recommended to find 
an outdoor occupation in the 
country, the doctors telling him he 
would go into consumption if he 
stayed in the town. 

I remember years ago attending 
the family of a farmer, when several 
of the children were presented to 
me as having caught ringworm 
from the cows, and one of the boys 
afterwards became very distinctly 
consumptive, and was given up as 
past praying for, and then he was 
sent up to London to me. Four 
months of Bacilliuum, high, quite 
cured him, and he is now thriving. 

This all confirms me in my view, 
which is the underlying idea of this 
book, that there is some close re- 
lationship between tuberculosis and 
ringworm, the precise nature of 



and Cure of Ringworm. 37 

which deserves attention and study. 

I have already quoted from the 
first London edition of my Five 
Years 1 Experience in the New Cure 
of Consumption, which see. 

In the second (American) edition 
of this same work the following 
may be found : — 

Case of Ringworm. 

In the first edition, as just stated, 
I communicated the important fact 
— many smaller things are called 
great discoveries — that ringworm 
yields readily to Bacillinum, and 
that I therefore regard this cuta- 
neous eruption as a tubercular 
manifestation. A little girl, five 
and a half years of age, was brought 
to me at the end of January 1891 
to be treated for ringworm ; there 



38 The Constitutional Nature 



was only one ring on the back of 
the neck, but this was well defined. 
Bacillinum C. was ordered, and the 
whole thing disappeared within the 
month, and the little lady has been 
very thriving ever since. 

So far as I am concerned in this 
work {New Cure for Consumption), 
the curability of ringworm by 
Bacillinum is an established fact 
and I therefore take leave of the 
subject so far as this work {New 
Cure for Consumption) is con- 
cerned. 

Here in this little volume I am 
concerned purely with the question 
of ringworm from the organismic 
standpoint, and so I will adduce a 
little more clinical evidence from 
my case-book. 

Neumann's statement that 



and Cure of Ringworm. 39 



healthy people are as liable to 
pityriasis versicolor and herpes 
tonsurans as those who are delicate 
I absolutely deny. Eczema mar- 
ginatum is pretty common, and, 
therefore, I have seen a good many 
cases of it. Neumann is of opinion 
that eczema marginatum is a modi- 
fied form of herpes tonsurans, 
which I doubt, as one meets with 
eczema marginatum in many fairly 
vigorous adult males, though they 
may not be truly healthy. 

Moreover, eczema marginatum 
does not yield to Bacillinum. 
Eczema marginatum I have known 
to improve under the influence of 
this remedy, but that is all. If, 
therefore, eczema marginatum is 
the same thing mycologically as 
herpes tonsurans, there must be in 



4-0 The Constitutional Nature 



its modification a tertium quid, a 
different pathological entity. 

Four Cases of Ringworm {Sisters) 
cured by Internal Medication. 

Miss Winnie X., aged ten, came 
under my care in the month of July 
1 89 1 to be treated for ringworm. 
There were several large patches on 
her scalp and numerous little ones ; 
the largest was on the crown of the 
head, a trifle to the left, and nearly 
two inches in diameter. The child 
had a profuse mass of hair; is of 
fairly healthy parentage. I say 
fairly, because I formerly cured her 
mother of an abdominal tumour 
and her brother of very severe ec- 
zema. Winnie herself is small for 
her age, thin, and not robust look- 
ing, though she has been living in 



and Cure of Ringworm. 41 

a fine healthy part of Yorkshire. 
Her neck was thin, and on both 
sides studded with feelable, large, 
hard glands. I put her on Bacilli- 
7mm in my wonted way ; in a month 
her glands were smaller and the 
herpes tonsurans was less active ; 
and in three months the glands of 
her neck were well, she had grown, 
had taken on a healthy look — quite 
ruddy — and the ringworm was 
nearly gone, the hair all growing 
again. At the end of the fourth 
month she was in all respects nor- 
mal, and a bright, bonny girl, and 
so she continues 

The three other sisters of Winnie 
had the same disease, and the same 
general conditions of non-thriving ; 
numerous pretty large, hard glands 
on both sides of the neck, and 

D 



42 The Constitutional Nature 

patches of the ringworm on their 
scalps and necks, and, like Winnie, 
with the bald ringworm patches, 
great shocks ofhair. They had the 
same treatment for the -same length 
of time, and with the identical 
result: the ringworm quite dis- 
appeared, the indurated glands got 
well (/'. e. , impalpable ) , the girls 
took to growing, and took on a 
ruddy, healthy appearance. The 
cure of the ringworm nr these four 
cases — as also in my others — was 
effected solely by the internal treat- 
ment by high potencies of Bacilli- 
num. The improvement was grad- 
ual, general, and all along the 
line, as one, indeed, should theoret- 
ically expect from any remedial 
agent that cures organismically 
and organically. Note well ; the 



an d J Cure of Ringworm. 43 

cure is not only organismic, but 
organic; not chemical, not mechan- 
ical, not local, not topic, not an- 
tiparasitic, but organic, vital. The 
fungi are not attacked, but the 
"host" of the fungi is healed, and 
the wee fungi die, and their spores 
cannot germinate any further in 
the same soil. In these four cases 
three of them had profuse heads of 
hair hanging down their necks ; one 
had been cropped. I ordered these 
fine heads of hair not to be cut off, 
but just left so as to put the treat- 
ment to the severest possible test, 
by thus leaving the spores of the 
fungi en masse all over 'the place. 
But this notwithstanding, no 
further development took place 
after the patients got well under 
the influence of the remed}^ the 



44 The Constitutional Nature 

progressive amelioration being 
steady, continuous, and complete. 
There are two elements in herpes 
tonsurans to be thus considered: 
ist, the soil-quality; and^ 2nd, the 
fungi. Every organic thing needs 
certain conditions of its own life in 
order to thrive, and what I main- 
tain in regard to ringworm is, that 
the disease proper is not to be 
sought in the presence of the fungi, 
but in that quality of the body 
which constitutes its fitness for 
the fungi to develop and thrive. 
In other words, a really healthy 
individual does not, and cannot 
catch ringworm. I say catch, and 
by that I mean get it from ordinary 
together-living with ringwormy 
individuals. I do not refer to 
inocul ability, where force is used, 



and Cure of Ringworm. 45 



and the stuff is injected into one's 
flesh and blood direct, because here 
a new order of things is created, 
which fact is commonly entirely 
lost sight of. I will, however, not 
touch, upon this question here, 
contenting myself with observing 
that catching a complaint in the 
common and natural order of 
things, and being compelled to take 
it by the injunction of material 
quantities of its stuff, are not 
equivalent by any means, though 
Pasteur, Koch, and biological ex- 
perimenters very generally work 
and write as if they were. And 
this, indeed, constitutes the weak 
link in their chain of argument. 
More particularly is this the case 
w r ith Koch and his experiments in 
tuberculosis. True, he renders 



46 The Constitutional Nature 

certain {healthy) creatures by 
inoculations immune against tuber- 
culosis, but our tubercular patients ; 
are not by any means healthy, but 
very unhealthy, inasmuch as they 
are tuberculous, and they can only 
be cured slowly, organically, by 
the processes set up by the action t 
of homoeopathic potencies of the 
remedy; for, if anything like a 
material dose be used, the action 
set up is on the same line and in 
the same direction as the disease, 
whereas the homoeopathic high 
potency of the virus sets up a con- 
trary — the opposite— action which 
tends to cure. This is the true 
reading of the phenomena, and 
this reading sheds ligjit upon the 
whole subject, and affords a sound 
working hypothesis, and all the 



and Cure of Ringworm. 47 



known phenomena are thus readily 
comprehended, and stand out in 
the clear light of reason tallying 
exactly with experience. Only the 
homoeopathic law of the double and 
opposite action of different doses 
renders the use of viruses as reme- 
dies possible. 

The greater the poison the great- 
er the remedy; true, but only 
homceopathically. Throw out the 
homoeopathic law, and the high 
potency and you are stranded, and 
your virus is a virus and nothing 
more ; and where is Koch ? Strand- 
ed just here — at this very point. 
He casts aside the homoeopathic 
law, he ignores the possibility of 
the action of high potencies, and 
tries nevertheless to cure with likes 
or identicals, and he fails ; and he 



48 The Constitutional Nature 



not only fails to cure, but he kills, 
as do all who follow him, as he and 
their own published results clearly 
testify. 

This is very unfortunate for sick 
folks, because the world at large do 
not, cannot, readily see the differ- 
ence between the use of a virus in 
homoeopathic potency and its use 
in Kochian fashion, although 
THE RESULTS ARE EXACTLY OPPO- 
SITE. 

For them — medical and lay — 
tuberculinum is tuberculinum 
whether the matrix substance or a 
homoeopathic potency, whereas the 
one is a poison that kills, while the 
other is a grand harmless remedy, 
that cures a very dire and fatal dis- 
ease. 

The vast majority of the homoeo- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 49 



pathic practitioners of the world- 
take up this position : they say the 
use of viruses as remedies is not 
permissible ; they are superior per- 
sons who disdain the use of such 
unspeakable things. They object 
to the kind of remedy altogether, 
which would be a tenable position 
if only they were able to cure as 
well without them. But can they ? 
No, they cannot, and do not. I 
have before now urged, that inas- 
much as the virus can (and must) 
be used in a high potenc}^, what 
the origin or nature of the matrix 
may be is a matter of absolute in- 
difference. 

"Oh," say they, " but we do not 
believe in high potencies, there is 
nothing in them." 

Their position is therefore this : 

K 



50 The Constitutional Nature 

they object to, say, tuberculinum, 
or pj^rogenium, because of their 
nature and origin; they object to 
them in high potency, becanse 
high potencies contain nothing at 
all. When, therefore, any of these 
superior persons object to the use 
of Bacillinnm for the cure of ring- 
worm on the ground of its being a 
virus, my reply is, that as I only 
use high potencies of it, and as 
high potencies, on their own show- 
ing, contain nothing at all, their 
objection falls to the ground, being 
reduced to the absurd, for no one 
can ascribe bad qualities to il noth- 
ing." 

I will pass on now from the ob- 
jections of these superior persons 
to a further study of the clinical 
results obtained by Baallinum in 



and Cure of Ringworm. 51 



the treatment of ringworm, and this 
I do the more willingly as I know 
full well that it w^ere vain to ex- 
pect or wait for any progress or 
help in the cure of grave forms of 
disease from them. They are now, 
therapeutically, where they for- 
merly were, and in the future they 
will be still in the same place, 
subserving the not altogether use- 
less purpose of milestones on the 
road of medical progress. They 
are already a good way behind, 
and will soon be lost to view al- 
together. 

Homoeopathy must progress on 
the lines of pathology and morbid 
anatomy, or it will wane, and study 
on animals will have to help us. 



52 The Constitutional Nature 



Case of Tinea Circinnata. 

A young lassie of eight years of 
age was brought by her mother to 
me on February 18, 1889, for a 
patch of ringworm on the left side 
of the nose and several others on 
the back of the neck, where the 
hairy scalp ends. She had from 
me Morbitlinum 30. 

March 20. — The old spots have 
gone, but she has quite a number 
of new ones on chest and arms ; 
her tongue is pippy ; she does not 
get off to sleep very readily. There 
is no ringworm on the body. 

B Bacillinum C. 

This quite cured the ringworm, 
and it never returned. I should 
have stated at the outset of this 
little narration, that patient had 



and Citre of Ringworm. 53 

had ringworms for many months 
before she was brought to me at all. 
Three years later — i. e., April n, 
1892 — I again saw r this girl with 
her mother, when I inquired 
whether there had been any return 
of the ringworm ? Patient had al- 
most forgotten all about the affair, 
but her mother exclaimed, — " Oh, 
Kathleen has never had any re- 
turn of the ringworm, though fresh 
places had kept on coming for over 
a year when I first brought her to 
you." 

Case of Ringworm Cured by 
Bacillinum CC. 

Towards the end of the year 
1 89 1, a lady was induced by rela- 
tives to bring her twelve-year-old 
son to me, because he had suddenly 



54 The Constitutional Nature 

arrived home from school with a 
circular, bald, scaly patch on the 
top of his head. The ring was 
about the size of a florin, and for 
the past three weeks had been 
treated most actively ; one might 
saj^ that said little ring-shaped 
patch had been attacked with 
venom, fury, and hatred by the 
surgeon, the mother, the governess, 
and by " uncle," the general im- 
pression conveyed b} r the onslaught 
was " we'll soon get rid of you!" 

But in vain, though "uncle" is 
a general in the army. The in- 
durated glands in the neck, the 
dusky colour of the skin of the 
neck, the dirt that would not wash 
off, showed quite clearly that the 
stroma was ill. Three months of 
the Bactllznum CC. } and nothing 



and Cure of Ringworm. 55 

else locally or internally, effected 
a very perceptible change in the 
boy : not only had the nasty horror- 
inspiring ring-shaped patch become 
covered with clean, healthy hairs, 
but the scurf had gone, and the 
boy had grown an inch ; he looked 
fresher, brighter, and — u Doctor, 
his face and neck are so much 
cleaner." 

The boy duly returned to school 
in capital health. 

Said the boy's mother, U I am 
beginning to have faith in your 
treatment, but oh! what a life 
'uncle' and the others have led me." 

What does your uncle say, now 
the nasty thing has gone ? 

u He says he always had his 
doubts as to whether it was a trite 
case of ringworm." 



56 The Constitutional Nature 

But I thought he was so very 
sure about it? 

"So he was when I brough S. 
to you, but the general says that 
the real ringworm is a parasitic 
disease, and that you cannot possi- 
bly kill parasites on the skin by 
giving the infected person little 
white powders to take." 

Tell your uncle I think faith did 
it. 

I fancy the general has a sure 
cure of his own brought from In- 
dia. 

Ringworm in General Survey in 
Literature. 

In daily life we find ringworm a 
difficult disorder to cure: a few 
cases yield to almost any sensible 
treatment, but the bulk of them 



and Cure of Ringworm, 57 

offer a stubborn resistance. And 
yet we often find the therapeutics 
of ringworm in the text-books con- 
fined to a very few lines. One 
author of no mean standing tells 
us that the soft-soap treatment 
generally suffices! However, some 
authors do not hesitate to speak 
out plainly on the subject. And I 
notice that the more the authors 
know of ringworm, the more they 
have studied it, the less therapeu- 
tically positive do they become. 
Willan (181 7) confessed that it is 
u hard to cure." 

Gruby (1844) made the discovery 
that a fungus was present in the 
broken-off hairs and in their root 
sheaths. This parasite was fully 
described by Malmsten, in Stock- 
holm, in 1845, and it was named 



58 The Constitutional Nature 

by hitn the Trichophyton tonsur- 
ans. Cazenave's name, Herpes 
tonsurans, is most commonly met 
with in many works. Its other 
names are legion. 

Alder Smith, M. B. Lond., F. R. 
C. S. (" Ringworm: Its Diagnosis 
and Treatment" London 1885), 
has very usefully spent many years 
in studying ringworm, and in the 
work just named shows himself a 
thorough master of the subject, his 
position as Resident Medical Offi- 
cer at Christ's Hospital, London, 
affording him incomparable oppor- 
tunities for such studies. I shall 
take this author as the represen- 
tative of the latest views of science 
on the subject of ringworm. 

Alder Smith thus defines ring- 
worm : — 



and Cure of Ringworm, 59 

" Ringworm is a disease of the 
skiu caused by a microscopic veg- 
etable parasite ; and the character- 
istic lesions are due to this minute 
fungus invading the epithelial 
layers of the skin, the hair follicles, 
and the hairs. The growth which 
causes this very troublesome af- 
fection belongs to the lowest order 
of plant life, the fungi or moulds ; 
the same fungus is found both in 
ringworm of the head and the body, 
and the two affections are essen- 
tially one. This disease, which is 
a very common one, is liable to at- 
tack all classes — the rich as well 
as the poor — and is highly con- 
tagious, but it is almost entirely 
confined to children." And then 
says : — 

" The history of ringworm is 



60 The Constitutional Nature 

complicated, as certain varieties of 
form of the disease have received a 
number of designations from the 
older authors."* 

As to the life-history of the 
fungus I will refer my readers to 
Alder Smith's work, which is be- 
yond compare the best epitome of 

* " Viz, — Porrigo scutullata, Willan; 
herpes tonsurans, herpes squamosus, 
Cazenave ; herpes circinatus, Batema?i ; 
porrigo ton soria, dartre furfuracee ar- 
rondie, Alibert; tinea tondens, squarus 
tondens, Mahon ; phyto-alopecia, Malm- 
stem; rhizophyto-alopecia, trichophytie, 
Gruby ; dermatomycosis tonsurans, K'db- 
ner ; tinea trichophytina, tinea circinata, 
Anderson; trichonosis furfuracea; porrigo 
furfurans; lichen herpetiformis, Devergie; 
lichen circumscriptus, figuratus, gyratus, 
impetigo figerata, etc.; Germ., scherende 
flechte ; Fr., herpes tonsurant ; teigne 
tondante ; teigne tonsurante." 



and Cure of Ringworm. 61 

the subject with which I am ac- 
quainted, almost all the other works 
on ringworm are antiquated and 
only of historic value. But I must 
quote what Alder Smith says of 
the host of the Trichophyton ton- 
surans. 

" The Soil" 
" All children are not equally 
susceptible to ringworm. A certain 
unknown condition of the skin is 
necessary for the growth of the 
fungus, as some children never 
take ringworm though constantly 
liable to become infected For it is 
evident that when one child in a 
family has ringworm, and is not 
under any treatment, the others 
must be exposed to the action of 
the fungus ; yet, at times, the dis- 
ease does not spread. 



62 The Constitutional Nature 

" This fact is often used as an 
argument by parents, to prove 
that their children are not suffer- 
ing from any contagious form of 
disease, and that they are in a fit 
condition to enter a school. 

" On some the fungus takes but 
slight hold, and is easily destroyed. 
Others are extremely susceptible; 
the disease quickly attacks the 
follicles and the hairs, and spreads 
with great rapidity although under 
treatment. Sometimes treatment 
even accelerates the already rapid 
spread of the disease, by producing 
impetiginous eczema with crusts ; 
and, by means of the pus, the 
fungus is carried to more distant 
and healthy parts. This variety 
is most difficult to manage. 

u The difference in these cases 



and Cure of Ringworm. 63 

must depend on some peculiar 
nutritive condition of the soil or 
material in which the fungus de- 
velops, or upon some special state 
of the general health or constitu- 
tion. In fact the state of the soil 
is a most important condition ; and 
the rapidity with which a small 
spot of ringworm will spread before 
it comes under efficient treatment 
depends chiefly upon this peculiar 
condition of the soil or nidus. We 
generally find that ringworm spe- 
cially occurs, and spreads most 
rapidly among poorly nourished 
children of a strumous or lym- 
phatic diathesis.* And it is often 

* "Mr. M. Morris states — and I fully 
agree with him — 'that children with very 
light brown, golden, or colourless hair, 
with light grey or blue eyes, and with 



64 The Constitutional Nature 

observed that all the children in a 
family of this description, if they 
become infected, will suffer severely; 
evidently showing that there is 
some general condition present 
favouring the parasitic growth. 

" Ringworm is also commonly 
seen amongst those who, while 
they are not decidedly strumous, 
are yet thin and pallid. 

" Most children with chronic ring- 
worm dislike fat ; this avoidance of 
fat in the diet — according to Dr. 
Fox — 'has a most potent influence 
in leading to the development of a 
condition of nutrition which is 
favourable to the occurrence of 
obstinate ringworm.' 

fine skin with thin epidermis, take ring- 
worm easily, and visually have it 
severely.' — The Lancet, Jan. 29th, 1881. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 65 

"But, on the other hand, we con- 
stantly see both recent and chronic 
ringworm in those who are neither 
strumous nor ill-nourished, — in 
fact upon decidedly healthy and 
robust children. This leads me 
still to hold the opinion, that the 
peculiar condition which is favour- 
able to the development of the ring- 
worm fungus is unknown. 

" Ringworm does not exercise 
any noticable influence on the gen- 
eral organism or constitution, or 
on the general nutrition of the 
body." 

I cannot agree with Dr. Fox's 
view, just quoted, in regard to the 
avoidance of fat as a food; what I 
would say is this : These children 
dislike fat because they are in an 
ill condition ; the ill condition pre- 
F 



66 The Constitutional Nature 

exists the avoidance of fat, and is 
not produced by want of it, other 
than secondarily. Alder Smith, as 
we see, holds the opinion that " we 
constantly see both recent and chronic 
ringworm in those who are neither 
strumous nor ill-nourished — in fact, 
npon decidedly healthy and robust 
children" 

This I deny; the ringworm mould 
cannot grow on really healthy chil- 
dren any more than fish can live 
out of water. Thej^ niay look 
healthy, even very healthy; they 
may appear to be robust, jolty, rosy, 
fat, but they are not truly healthy, 
or their skin-surface would not get 
mouldy in ringwormy patches. 

Of course, my opportunities for 
observing ringworm are not by any 
means to be compared to those of 



and Cure of Ringworm. 67 

Alder Smith's, but I have examined 
a goodly number to test the point, 
and have never yet found a truly 
healthy child the subject of ring- 
worm: they all have more or less 
indurated glands somewhere. From 
the curative results following the 
exhibition of Bacillinum I am led 
to believe that the mould of ring- 
worm can 'only grow on those who 
are more or less strumous or tuber- 
cular, and that the degree of the 
disease gauges the degree of the 
constitutional morbidity. 

Now Alder Smith is a reliable 
observer, a man of science and fact, 
and there is strong inherent evi- 
dence in his work on ringworm that 
he puts his facts fairly and squarely 
before his readers. This being so, 
it must follow that his facts should 



68 The Constitutional Nature 

prove the constitutional nature of 
ringworm if such be the case. 
Let us see. 

ALDER SMITH'S FACTS VERSUS 
ALDER SMITH'S VIEW THAT 
' 'DECIDEDL Y HEAL THY CHIL- 
DREN" MAY BE SUBJECT TO 
RINGWORM. 

In the following quotations from 
Alder Smith's work most of the 
italics are mine. 

He says (pp. 29 et seq.): — 

" Diagnosis of Ringworm which has 
Existed Some Time. 

" Chronic Squamous Ringworm. 

" In the first place, I cannot help 
observing that very few medical 
men, either in consultation or pri- 
vate practice, are aware how ex- 
tremely difficult some cases of ring- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 69 

worm are to cure; and the majority 
consider a case well, even when it 
has assumed a decidedly chronic 
state. I constantly have boys 
brought to me on their return to 
private schools, and very many also 
on their presentation for admission 
to Christ's Hospital, who, while 
bringing certificates from medical 
men of the highest professional 
standing that they are cured of ring- 
worm, and quite fit to mix with 
other children, are still suffering 
from a severe, contagious, and chronic 
form of the disease ; and I have 
often found on inquiry, that an 
opinion has been formed, and a cer- 
tificate given without any special 
examination of the scalp, and cer- 
tainly without the help of the lens 
or microscope. Many practitioners 



70 The Constitutional Nature 

imagine that ringworm is cured 
when some of the hair is again 
growing freely and firmly on the 
part affected. This is a great mis- 
take, as some of the most chronic 
and intractable cases are those in 
which the hair has partially grown 
again on the scurfy patches; but, 
on close inspection with a lens, 
some short broken-off hair or stumps 
may be seen scattered among the 
healthy hairs. 

"It is impossible to speak too 
strongly on this point, as an out- 
break of ringworm in a school is 
often due to the admission into it 
of an unrecognised case of the 
disease. As a rule, the trouble 
arises from a boy returning to 
school (after he has had an attack 
of ringworm on the head) with a 



and Cure of Ringworm. 71 

certificate to the effect that he is cured, 
when in fact he is suffering from a 
chronic and contagious form of the 
complaint; or, from the entry into 
the school of an entirely unsus- 
pected case ; generally a boy, who 
has had a scurfy patch on his head 
for some time, but who is, in reality, 
suffering from chronic ringworm. 

" Speaking from experience, after 
the examination of a very large 
number of children, both in private 
and for admission into Christ's 
Hospital and other schools, / have 
found that in by far the majority of 
cases where a boy has had rtngU r m 
on the head within a year or two of 
my seeing him, the disease has not 
been really cured. As a rule, the 
treatment has been continued until 
some new hair has made its appear- 



72 The Constitutional Nature 

ance on the patches, after which it 
has been discontinued, although 
many diseased stumps remained. 
When this stage has been reached, 
the case will often continue in the 
sa?ne chronic state — the patches re- 
mained about the same size, getting 
neither better nor worse — while the 
little patient, who may be certified 
as " perfectly well," may be the 
constant and unsuspected cause of 
a succession of outbreaks of ring- 
worm in a school." 

We therefore see that in by far 
the majority of cases certified as 
cured the disease has not been 
cured at all, but still exists as 
Chronic Squamous Ringworm. 
Hence it follows that the ordinary 
statistics of the cure of ringworm 
by medical and surgical practi- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 73 



tioners are worthless. The cures 
are not real, the treatment has 
merely got rid of the worst of the 
ringwormy mould in its more gross 
and evident form. Even one year, 
even two years, after the cure the 
sufferers continue to be contagi- 
ously ringwormy notwithstanding 
the fact that the patches have been 
scoured clean and the hairs have 
grown again. 

Our Author further says : — 

" Disseminated Ringworm. 

" Especially would I call atten- 
tion to a variety I call " dissemi- 
nated ringworm " — one rarely diag- 
nosed, and the most chronic and 
difficult to cure. The hair is found 
to be growing freely and firmly all 
over the head; there are, perhaps, 
G 



74 The Constitutional Nature 

no patches to be seen now, although 
probably they have existed at an 
earlies stage of the disease; the 
skin appears generally healthy, and 
perhaps almost free from scurf: 
but numerous isolated and gener- 
ally thickened stumps, or groups 
of stumps, or black dots, are seen 
here and there, often scattered all 
over the scalp. This variety is al- 
most always overlooked^ and can 
only be detected by very careful 
examination." 
And again : — 

" Diffuse Ringworm. 

" A very chronic form, "diffuse 
ringworm/' is also sometimes seen, 
in which there are one or more 
large .irregular patches, often ex- 
tending nearly all over the scalp. 



ci7id Cure of Ringworm. 75 

The surface is very scurfy, and 
very many of the long hairs have 
grown again, but numerous stumps 
are to be seen in every direction. 
This variety is constantly overlooked, 
or mistaken for seborrhoea or 
chronic squamous eczema; but it 
can always be diagnosed by the 
stumps. Cases are even found 
where the entire scalp is affected. 

" Chronic Pustular Ringworm. 

" Chronic ringworm may also 
occur in the form of pustular spots, 
with a certain amount of redness 
and crusting around, and with a 
stump existing in the centre of 
each spot. This appears to be 
Nature's effort to get rid of the 
stump, and can be successfully 
imitated by treatment. 



76 The Constitutional Nature 

" Small Spots. 

" Sometimes chronic ringworm 
may exist, without apparent change, 
for months or even years, as a single 
spot, or in spots so small that they 
are not noticed, even by professional 
men, with numerous long hairs 
and only a few stumps. Often ten 
minutes or more has to be spent in 
examining a child's head before 
any stumps can be detected. I 
have known an outbreak of ring- 
worm in a school to be caused by 
a chronic spot not larger than a 
split pea, and where only a few 
stumps could be found on close ex- 
amination with a lens." 

We see, then, that not only are 
most of the cases certified by emi- 
nent medical men as cured, not 
really cured, but that " Dissemi- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 



i i 



nated Ringworm," " Diffuse Ring- 
worm," and " Small-Spot Ring- 
worm" are " rarel} r diagnosed," 
" constantly overlooked," and " not 
noticed even by professional men." 
It must, therefore, be manifest 
that the germs of ringworm must 
be about in almost every gathering 
of children, at every party, in every 
school, in almost every church and 
chapel in the world ; and when we 
further remember that Dr. Tilbury 
Fox found the conidia of tricho- 
phyton in abundance in the dust 
deposited from the air of a ward in 
which ringworm cases were lo- 
cated, it must be pretty clear that 
ringworm may be communicated 
through the air in a multitude of 
different places, and in almost all 
schools and other places where chil- 



7 8 The Constitutional Nature 

dren do congregate, and that is 
practically everywhere. Alder Smith 
further affirms (p. 5) that it may 
be caught from the heads or infect- 
ed articles belonging to boys or 
girls, with chronic, and often tin- 
known and untreated, varieties of 
the disease, which are every day 
mistaken for chronic scrnf or dry 
eczema. 

Therefore we may say that the 
germs of ringworm are practically 
everywhere. This is qnite what 
we shonld expect from our knowl- 
edge of the moulds generally: 
given the right conditions for 
mouldiness and moulds, and there 
they are. Also, given the right soil 
and conditions for ringworm — and 
there it is. 

The other known facts of the 



and Cure of Ringworm* 79 

disease ringworm leads us to the 
same conclusion as just stated 
probable universal presence of the 
germs of ringworm. 

Keeping still to our Author, we 
read (p. 44): — "I am positive that 
a ringworm on the head, the size of 
a sixpence, can develop in forty- 
eight hours, and increase to the 
size of a florin in another twenty- 
four hours, because I have actually 
seen ringworm grow at this rate. 
But this is certainly not the usual 
rate of progress. Ringworm gener- 
ally develops much more slowly 
than this ; yet there is no doubt 
that a moderate sized patch may 
appear in a few days. 

" It cannot, on the other hand, 
be said how long it has not existed; 
for the place may spread very slow- 



80 The Constitutional Nature 

ly, and remain almost in the same 
state for weeks, or even months. 

" Cases like these (chronic ring- 
worm) mnst have existed some 
time ; probably for many months, 
or possibly for years. 

"I remember one inveterate case 
that resisted all treatment/or nine 
years, and thongh the patient was 
eighteen when I last saw him, he 
still had disseminated ringworm; 
and another disseminated case {lately 
under my care) had been treated by 
many medical men for a period oj 
eight years without being cured. 

" It is impossible to say how long 
even a small spot of chronic ring- 
worm may not have existed, as it 
may have remained in a latent state 
for month, or even years. 

" The rate of growth and rapidity 



and Cure of Ringworm. 81 






of reproduction are very different 
in individual cases. If the fungus 
spreads slowly, it indicates only a 
slightly favourable soil, and it can 
then — in its early stage — often be 
quickly eradicated; but if it grows 
rapidly, it is due to the general nu- 
tritive condition furnishing a fa- 
vourable nidus : it is then most dif- 
ficult, and sometimes impossible to 
arrest its course; the increase in the 
rate of growth of the fungus being 
greater than can be counterbalanced 
by rubbing in parasiticides. 

" Dr. T. Fox says : ' Ringworm 
is obstinate in propoi r tion as this or 
that patient offers a favourable soil 
in his textures for the growth of 
the fungus or parasite.' " 

I think the impartial will at once 
concede that Alder Smith the 

H 



82 The Constitutional Nature 

physician completely refutes Alder 
Smith the rubber-in of parasiticides, 
but that he should do it unbeknown 
to himself is distinctly curious. 

Is Ringworm a Disease Due to 
Dirt ? 

No ; not one of my cases of the 
past three or four j T ears was due 
to dirt, all being members of the 
higher and upper middle classes, 
who tub and scrub, perhaps, even 
too much. 

On this point Alder Smith says : 
"It is a great mistake to think 
ringworm is due to dirt. Of course 
neglected children with dirty heads 
are more likel}^ to be exposed to, 
and to take the disease ; but it 
constantly occurs in children whose 



and Cure of Ringworm. 83 

heads are kept perfectly clean, and 
where all proper care is taken. 
No matter what precautions are ob- 
served with regard to cleanliness, 
some of the other children in a 
school will commonly take ring- 
worm if an untreated case is acci- 
dentally admitted into it, no matter 
from what class of society the pu- 
pils be obtained." Note the some. 

Our Author continues : — "Chil- 
dren under ten years of age seem 
more prone to take the disease than 
those who are older ; and it is very 
rarely contracted after the age of 
thirteen, and hardly ever seen on 
the head in adults. Again, infants 
are not often infected. 

" About puberty, ringworm is 
more manageable, and generally — 
even when it has existed for vears 



84 The Constitutional Nature 



— it tends to get well spontaneously 
soon after this period" 

Now if the essence of the disease 
is the fungus, and the treatment is 
to be addressed to the killing of 
the fungi, why should the age of 
the individual host have anything 
to do with the parasite ? And how 
is it that it gets well spontaneously 
after puberty ? 

Alder Smith devotes over a hun- 
dred pages to the treatment of ring- 
worm — killing the fungi — and I 
will conclude this part of my sub- 
ject with a few of his intercurrent 
remarks on the difficulties of the 
task. He says : — 

" Nothing is easier to cure than 
a patch of ringworm situated on 
the body, but it is a very different 
matter when it exists on the hairy 



and Cure of Ringworm. 85 

scalp. Then the treatment is, as a 
rule, most disappointing. Quick 
cures are very rare, and snre results 
are only to be obtained by thorough 
and long-continued employment of 
active remedies. 

"It is necessary to keep in mind 
the important facts, that the fungus 
is the essential cause of the mis- 
chief; that it soon extends to the 
bottom of the hair-follicles; that 
its destruction is indispensable in 
order to cure the disease ; that the 
great difficulty in curing ringworm 
is not to find parasiticides, but to 
get them to penetrate deeply into 
the hair-follicles, and thus come 
into contact with the fungus. 

u Remedies act in two ways: first, 
by destroying the fungus — para- 
siticides, such as boracic acid, 



86 The Constitutional Nature 

sulphurous acid, and the oleates of 
copper and mercury ; others act \>y 
setting up inflammation, and even 
exudation about the follicles, and 
by this means cure the disease — as 
croton oil ; but by far the majority 
combine both these properties, as 
acetic and carbolic acids, Goa 
powder, chrysarobin, nitrate of mer- 
cury, etc. 

"It is very unwise to make a 
large sore place on the scalp, espe- 
cially in recent ringworm, as the 
pustular variety may thus be set 
up; and strong preparations should 
never be used to young children. 

"Selection of a Treatment. 

" There are hundreds of different 
ways of treating ringworm of the 
head, and many ' never-failing ' 



and Cure of Ringworm. 87 

nostrums, which are warranted to 
cure the disease in a few days or 
weeks. 

"The reason why so many things 
are said to cure ringworm is due to 
two causes : firstly, many cases are 
only ringworm of the body ; sec- 
ondly, numberless children are said 
to be well, when they still have 
ringworm in the most chronic 
form, and thus remedies are said to 
cure cases that have never been in- 
fluenced for good by them. I have 
so often drawn attention to this fact 
that this may appear mere repeti- 
tion, but considering the number 
of children constantly sent to me 
already certified as ' cured,' who 
have ringworm in a contagious 
form, it would appear that all that 
has been written on this subject 



88 The Constitutional Nature 

has made but little impression on 
some medical men. 

"The plain truth is that there is 
not a single plan {except the nse of 
strong caustics which will form 
scars) which can be relied on with 
absolute certainty to cure ringworm 
of the head. The rapidity with 
which different cases, of apparently 
equal severity, yield to similar 
treatment varies greatly. Some go 
on unchecked for months , or even 
years, and may even spread nnder 
good treatment — while others rap- 
idly get well." 

The next hundred pages of Alder 
Smith's work are devoted to para- 
siticides and their modes of appli- 
cation to kill the fungi, and all this 
is by, perhaps, the greatest living 
authority on ringworm — always, 



and Cure of Ringworm. 89 

bien entendu, from the outside sur- 
geon's standpoint. The treatment 
of ringworm by orthodoxy thus re- 
quires horse-clipper, scrubbing- 
brush, and ointment-pot, and, to 
identif}^ the sinful fungi, a micro- 
scope. 

Date, 1892. 

Finally, in the light of the fore- 
going facts, it must be manifest to 
any thoughtful practitioner that 
annular scalp mould or ringworm 
is to be regarded as a constitutional 
affair, and the treatment should be 
addressed to the host and not to 
the parasite. 

We have seen that the germs of 
ringworm are almost universally 
present, and that at all times. The 
treatment by parasiticides is diffi- 



90 The Constitutional Nature 

cult, tedious, and, for the most part, 
entirely unsatisfactory, for the vast 
majority of cases medically certified 
as cured are really not cured at all. 
The nephew of one of the best- 
known dermatologists of this coun- 
try was lately brought by his 
mother to me to be treated for an 
ill-defined pining condition and a 
trifling cough. "He has never 
been well since he had the ring- 
worm," exclaimed his mother. An 
examination of the boy's scalp 
showed that w^e had to do with 
pretty severe scalp eczema, or 
Alder Smith's Diffuse Chronic 
Ringworm. There was anorexia, 
and restless nights had brought 
down patient's state of nutrition. 
His cervical glands were hard and 
visible : two months of BacilL and 



and Cure of Ringworm. 91 



the boy was discharged well, or 
rather the mother did not bring 
him again, as he was in her judg- 
ment " perfectly well." 

" But," said the mother, "I have 
come this time about myself; ever 
since my children had the ring- 
worm last year my own head is 
covered with scurf, and my hair 
breaks off, and my hair has become 
quite thin and short, whereas I have 
always been so proud of my beau- 
tiful head of hair, especially as I 
have had so many children." 

After being two months under 
the influence of Bacillinum in high 
potency and infrequently adminis- 
tered, the lady wrote to me saying, 
" my head is now quite free from 
scurf, and the hair is growing again 
beautifully." No external applica- 



92 The Constitutional Nature 



tion of any kind soever was nsed ; 
nor was any change made either 
in diet, mode of life, or place of 
abode. 

Depend upon it, impartial reader, 
the mould of ringworm is not the 
disease ; the disease is of the organ- 
ism. 

The Literature of Ringworm and 
of Mycology Generally. 

Alder Smith I have quoted from 
largely, and his work, Ringworm: 
Its Diagnosis and Treatment, third 
edition, London, 1885, is classic. 

Then there is Cooke's Fungi: 
Their Nature, Influence, and Uses, 
which is a masterly production. 

Besides these I have also con- 
sulted the following from my own 
library, viz. : — 



and Cure of Ringworm. 93 

1. Mushroom -Culture for Ama- 

teurs, by W. J. May. 

2. British Fungi,by E M. Holmes, 

F.L.S.,F. R.M.S. London, 
1886. 

3. Parasitic Diseases of the Skin, 

Vegetoid and Animal, by James 
Startin. London, 1881. 

4. A Synopsis of the Bacteria and 

Yeast Fungi, by W. B. Grove, 
B. A. London, 1884. 

5. Micro-Fungi, by Thomas Brit- 

tain. Manchester, 1882. 

6. The Plant- World: Its Past, Pres- 

ent, arid Future, by George 
Massee. London, 1891. 

7. Rust, Smut, Mildew, and Mould: 

An Introduction to the Study of 
Microscopic Fungi, by M. C. 
Cooke, M.A., LL. D., A. L. S. 
London, 1886. 



94 The Constitutional Nature 

8. An Essay on Ringworm, by 

Andrew Paul, surgeon, Ox- 
ford, 1849. 

9. Les Microbes Pathogenes, par 

Cli. Bouchard, Membre de l'ln- 
stitut, Paris, 1892. 

10. On Ringworm : An Inquiry 
into the Pathology, Causes, and 
Treatment, by William J. 
Smith, M. B. Lond. London, 
1867. 

1 1 . On Ringworm : Its Causes, 
Pathology, and Treatment, by 
Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S. Lon- 
don, 1847. 

But I had not by any means the 
wish to write the history of my 
subject; I merely desired to get a 
look round in the literature of the 
subject generalfy : only an all- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 95 

round idea leading up to the study 
of pathogenous fungi. 

Ringworm Regarded from the 
Standpoint of General Mycology. 

The botany of most medical men 
can be at best only a of very ele- 
mentary nature, and when we come 
to a consideration of the physiol- 
ogy of the fungi this is especially 
so. To have independent views of 
mycological questions from the 
standpoint of botanic science I 
should need a vast deal more 
knowledge of fungi than I can 
claim ; but at the same time I am 
anxious to see whether my clinical 
standpoint is at variance or in con- 
sonance with the views of acknowl- 
edged mycologists. For it must be 
manifest that we might expect to 



g6 The Constitutional Nature 



find certain fixed data in the physi- 
ology of fungi generally that should 
help us somewhat in arriving at a 
just conclusion. 

Cooke* almost doubts the possi- 
bility of excluding the germs of 
common fungi, so numerous are 
they, and no air can be found but 
what contains multitudes of them. 

According to Pasteur the spores 
of fungi are more numerous near 
human habitations. 

A very common form of mould 
is Penicillium ) its spores being 
everywhere present in large num- 
bers. 

* Fungi : Their Nature, Influence, arid 
Uses, by M. C. Cooke, M.A., U,.D., etc. 
London, 1875. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 97 

Neumann* says that the results 
of his experiments confirm the 
clinical observation of Hebra as to 
the origin of Herpes tonsurans 
(ringworm) and favus from one 
organism, viz., Penicillium. 

Hallier regards Trichophyton as 
a development of the conidia chains 
of Penicillium. It must, therefore, 
be manifest that any one may have 
ringworm without ever coming into 
contact with ringworm as such at 
all, inasmuch as the conidia of 
Penicillium are the germs of Tri- 
chophyton, and the conidia of Peni- 
cillium are always present in large 

* Text book of Skin Diseases, by Dr. 
Isidor Neumann, Lecturer on Dermato- 
logy in the Imperial University of Vien- 
na. Translated by Dr. Pullar. London, 
1871. 

I 



98 The Constitutional Nature 

quantities in the atmospheric air 
wherein we live, and move, and 
have our being. And hence it 
would appear that the presence or 
absence of ringwormy boys in a 
school is not a matter of capital 
importance, inasmuch as the ring- 
worm mould is only another and 
higher form of the Penicillium. 

There is so much evidence on 
record illustrating the polymorph- 
ism of fungi, that it cannot be re- 
garded as a very far cry from Peni- 
cillium to Trichophyton. 

Grove* speaks with small respect 
of the reliability of the data given 
by medical mycologists. His di- 

* A Synopsis of the Bacteria and Yeast 
Fungi and Allied Species (Schizomycetes 
and Saccharomycetes), by W. B. Grove, 
B.A. London, 1884. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 99 

vision of fungi into chromogenous, 
zyinogenous, and pathogenous 
seems fairly natural. 

Speaking of fungi, Holmes* 
says : — " Mushrooms, toadstools, 
the mildew on walls, the mould on 
bread, the rust on wheat, and the 
potato disease, are familiar objects 
to most of us ; but few who are not 
botanists are aw 7 are that they all 
belong to the large and varied 
group of plants comprised under 
the name of fungi. It might be 
still more surprising to some to 
learn that the yeast with which 
bread is made and beer fermented, 
the vinegar plant which is used to 
turn sugar and water into vinegar, 

* British Fungi, Lichens and Mosses^ 
includi?ig Scale-Mosses and Liverworts, by 
E. M. Holmes, F.Iy.S-, etc. London, 1886. 



ioo The Constitutional Nature 

and the disagreeble skin disease 
called ringworm, all belong to the 
same class of plants." 

He also tells us that many 
species which in this country are 
despised as loathsome toadstools, 
form regular articles of diet in 
Italy, Russia, and other countries ; 
while in China and Japan several 
kinds of fungi are cultivated on 
decaying trunks of trees, in the 
same way that mushrooms are 
grown in the catacombs of Paris. 
Not very pleasant for one enjoying 
a petit diner in a beautiful Paris- 
ian cafe to suddenly remember that 
the daintly dressed mushrooms in 
the dish before him were perhaps 
grown in the catacombs. 

The role played by the fungi in 
this world of ours almost baffles 



and Cure of Ringworm. 101 

any adequate conception ; to them 
we owe beer, wine, vinegar, our very 
bread (in the form we use it) , and — 
ringworm. 

Concluding Thoughts. 

X. the organic individual dies, 
and as spores and germs are every- 
where present, they find in the de- 
caying X. their food, housing, and 
all their other conditions of organic 
and organismic thrift. The death 
of X. is birth to innumerable or- 
ganisms, for as soon as X. ceases 
to react with its medium, then these 
organisms begin their life on its 
organic remains. Life is just 
change. Nature knows no dead 
material, for the grave of one or- 
ganism is the birthplace of many 
more; the animal lives on the 



io2 The Constitutional Nature 



vegetal, and man lives on them 
both. En revanche man decays and 
dies, and vegetal and animal again 
swarm into being in his remains. 
Verily, an awful contemplation, but 
so it indubitably is. Then there 
is another death in the form of ema- 
nations ; our very breath is death in 
a certain sense. The products of 
any assembly of organisms at a 
given stage of intensity poison and 
kill their producers, they getting 
diseases constituting their ante- 
mortal stage. It is just the same 
throughout Nature and with all 
degenera and species. 

It is the degree of concentration 
that is really determinative. 

The Hollyhock Disease. 
Cooke {jam cit.) remarks that a 



and Cure of Ringworm. 103 

writer in the Gardeners Chronicle 
has proposed a remedy for the 
hollyhock disease which he hopes 
will prove effectual. He says: — 
" The terrible disease has now, for 
twelve months, threatened the com- 
plete annihilation of the glorious 
family of hollyhock, and to baffle 
all the antidotes that the ingenuity 
of man could suggest, so rapidly 
does it spread and accomplish its 
deadly work. Of this I have had 
very good evidence, as last year at 
this time I had charge of [the 
italics are mine], if not the largest, 
one of the largest and finest col- 
lections of hollyhocks anywhere in 
cultivation, which had been under 
my special care for eleven years, 
and up to within a month of my 
resigning that position I had ob- 



104 The Constitutional Nature 

served nothing uncommon amongst 
them; but before taking my final 
leave of them, I had to witness the 
melancholy spectacle of bed after 
bed being smitten down, and 
amongst them many splendid seed- 
lings which had cost me years of 
patience and anxiety to produce. 
And, again, upon taking a share 
and the management of this busi- 
ness, another infected collection fell 
to my lot, so that I have been do- 
ing cruel battle with this disease 
since its first appearance amongst 
us, and I must confess that up to 
a very short time back I had come 
in for a great deal the worst of the 
fight, although I had made use of 
every agent I could imagine as 
being likely to aid me, and all 
that many competent friends could 



and Cure of Ringworm. 105 

suggest. But lately I was re- 
minded of Condy's patent fluid, 
diluted with water, and at once 
produced a bottle of the green 
quality, and applied it in the pro- 
portion of a large tablespoonful to 
one quart of water ; and upon ex- 
amining the plants dressed, twelve 
hours afterwards, was delighted to 
find it had effectually destroyed 
the disease." And so on. 

He continues : — " I believe plant- 
ing the hollyhocks in large crowded 
beds should be avoided, as I have 
observed the closer they are growing 
the more virulently does the dis- 
ease attack them, whereas isolated 
rows and plants are but little in- 
jured" Now the point brough out 
by this gardener with regard to 
his beautiful hollyhocks is pre- 



106 The Constitutional Nature 

cisely what my own ideas lead up 
to, viz., overcrowding. Let us note 
that our friend's hollyhocks were 
in large numbers, they had been 
there a long time, the closer they 
were growing the more virulently 
did the disease attack them, whereas 
isolated row r s and plants were but 
little injured. 

The lately prevailing epidemic 
of influenza is, in my judgment, a 
fungal disease produced in houses — 
£. e., overcrowding. 

During this epidemic I noticed 
that house-life was seemingly ne- 
cessary for it to thrive. In one 
town the mortality was fearful, 
over 60 per 1000 ; it was difficult 
to get undertakers enough to bury 
the dead. I recommended my 
patients there to keep their win- 



and Cure of Ringworm. 107 

dows wide open night and day, and 
where this was done no one fell ill ! 

The emanations of organisms, 
whether hollyhock or human be- 
ings, are of the nature of effete, 
dead matter, notably to the self- 
same organisms, and, give a suffi- 
cient degree of concentration, 
fungal disease is the result. The 
Condy's fluid probably killed the 
hollyhock disease by using-up the 
autoinfective hollyhock emanations 
on which the fungi lived and 
throve ; it would act in two ways,, 
viz., by using-up the hollyhock 
emanations the hollyhocks had a 
poison-free medium again, and the 
fungi would become weak from 
want, and thus be readily killed, 
or simply die off wholesale from 
starvation. 



108 The Constitutional Nature 

We call to mind that the disease 
did not attack those # hollyhocks 
that were isolated in single rows, 
their emanations not being here 
sufficiently concentrated to give 
the fungi enough to live on. We 
note w r ell that the collection of 
hollyhocks, in which the disease 
became formidable, was very large, 
and had been long established in 
the same place. 

The emanation of organisms are 
noxious and obnoxious to the self- 
same organisms. Anj^ one can 
notice that where horses and cows 
graze in the same meadow the 
horses will nibble off the grass 
close to cow-dung but not near 
their own, and conversely the cows 
will eat the grass close to horse- 
dung, and even push it away with 



and Cure of Ringworm, 109 

their mouths without evincing the 
slighest objection. 

All creatures abhor their own 
dejecta. Even the " dirty pig" is 
very sty-clean if he has the chance, 
and evidently on the same prin- 
ciple, while he has no objection 
whatever to the dejecta of other 
animals. 

Physicians know but too well 
the smells of bedrooms, and even 
a very large bedroom with only one 
healthy person in it for a very 
short time will get quite "frowsy" 
in an hour, particularly if the per- 
son has been to sleep. 

The emanations from living or- 
ganisms are very evidently hurt- 
ful to themselves, and, if suffici- 
ently concentrated, more or less 
deadly, and it seems probable that 



no The Constitutional Nature 

the fungi come in and thrive there- 
on to the advantage of the organ- 
isms, tending at any rate to post- 
pone the fatal issue; organic 
remains and emanations constitute 
the pabulum of the fungi. Of 
course the fungi must follow the 
ordinary law of Nature, and they 
in their turn must succumb to their 
own products. 

Nature does not tolerate any 
dead thing, for as soon as there is 
any dead thing present new life 
starts therein forthwith. How far 
fungal products poison the hosts of 
the fungi is worthy of study and 
thought, and will in the future loom 
large into therapeutics. 

It seems to me that those chil- 
dren who are suffering from ring- 
worm are in better health with 



and Cure of Ringworm, in 

their ringworm than they are when 
the ringworm fungi are killed off 
by local measures. My own obser- 
vations on this part of the subject 
are as yet too few for me to be able 
to form a positive opinion, but as 
far as they do go they tend to the 
conclusion that serious ill-health 
often dates from the time when 
they were cured of ringworm, i.e., 
from the time when the fungi were 
locally more or less destroyed from 
the surface. I know of two cases 
in which very severe forms of deaf- 
ness started coincidently with the 
germicidal cure of ringworm. 

The thought naturally at once 
arises in one's mind, whether the 
trichophyton of ringworm has any 
relationship to the bacillus of tu- 
berculosis, and if so, what ? 



H2 The Constitutional Nature 

Just as the fungal disease of 
hollyhocks was most virulent 
where they were crowded, so is the 
fungal disease ringworm in most 
evil report in schools, or, in other 
words, where the children are nu- 
merous and close together. School- 
masters and school-surgeons are 
very positive about ringworm hav- 
ing been " imported into the 
school " by a boy coming from his 
home, but my own experience goes 
to show that as a rule ringworm is 
bred in the schools and is exported 
thence into the families. Not only 
so, but it is large families that sup- 
ply us with specimens of ring- 
wormy children more frequently 
than small ones, and it is the large 
schools that suffer most. At least 
so it appears to me from my only 
moderately numerous observations. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 113 

And in regard to tuberculosis 
we find this behaves similarly, and 
it is certainly true that where 
numerous human beings house to- 
gether in closed apartments, there 
anthropotoxine* is generated, and 
the bacillus of tuberculosis finds 
its cradle and home. Of course, 
some organisms can withstand the 
effects of poisons, simply by reason 
of their strength, more than others; 
the weaker and more delicate de- 
teriorate in health from the effects 
of anthropotoxine. 

Anthropotoxine is inhaled until 
the lungs become bad enough for 
the fungus of phthisis to thrive in. 
I do not imagine that overcrowding 
acts in any specific way, or that 

*The poisonous principle in human 
emanations. 

j 



ii4 The Constitutional Nature 

numbers are necessary other than 
in proportion to the quantity of air 
to be breathed. It therefore fol- 
lows that a household of two per- 
sons may suffer from overcrowding, 
while one of twenty persons may 
not, — it is the proportion; and al- 
ways must we remember that there 
are several factors in the sum, viz., 
the lack of sufficient clean fresh 
air ; the presence of autotoxine 
(the hollyhock emanations from the 
hollyhocks, and the anthropotoxine 
for human beings) , and then fungal 
life. And then, given these forests 
of fungi, their effects upon their 
hosts have to be considered. This 
is a large chapter. Certainly fungi 
love darkness rather than light, 
but whether their deeds are there- 
fore evil, science, experience, and 
thinking must determine. 



and Cure of Ringworm. 115 

Bland Sutton in his Evolution 
and Disease (London, 1890), and 
after a consideration of actinomy- 
cosis, a very interesting disease, 
expresses the view that sarcoma is 
of fungal nature, and as what he 
says on the subject is eminently 
instructive and intensely interest- 
ing, I cannot refrain from giving 
his summary : — 

"To put the matter in a clear 
form, a sarcoma is probably the 
scene of action of a virulent and 
prolonged conflict between irritant 
micro-organisms and leucocytes. I 
say probably, because, as has been 
already remarked, bacteriologists 
have not yet succeeded in isolating 
a special bacterium for sarcomata 
in general; that such agents will 
soon be discovered is in the highest 



n6 The Constitutional Nature 

degree probable, because in recent 
years each increase in the list of 
infective granulomata is made at 
the expense of sarcomata. The 
structure, mode of growth, infective 
properties, and manner in which 
these tumours destroy life, clearly 
coincide with what is positively 
known with regard to infective 
granulomata. The fact that sar- 
comata make up the greater part 
of tumours occurring in wild and 
domesticated animals has, in my 
opinion, a very significant import 
in this relation." 

Thus we see that although ring- 
worm may not at first sight appear 
to offer a very promising subject 
of general interest, we soon find 
ourselves in studying it landed 
right into the middle of the great 



and Cure of Ringworm. 117 

bio-pathological problem of " the 
maggot and the cheese" — i. ^.,life 
and death. 

It has been urged against some 
of the medical views to which I 
have given expression that they 
are advanced too positively as ab- 
solute facts ; well, of course, that 
may be: I give my data and my 
reasons, so that any other com- 
petent medical person can judge 
for himself whether I am right or 
wrong. It is perfectly true that I 
am a positive individual ; I believe 
in work and progress, and, in the 
practical activities of the physician, 
I want helpful, and, therefore, posi- 
tive views. If I have bad ring- 
worm cases to cure what is the use 
to me of the medical agnosticism 
of the superior person whose posi- 
tion is this : — 



n8 The Constitutional Nature 

" It may be so, I cannot tell, and wouldn't like to say, 
I don't incline to this or that, nor yet the other way; 
I can't at an\' time feel sure, yet hardly like to doubt, 
And feel I musn't trust to ' guess ' for fear of being out 
Not feeling any certainty, I do not like to speak, 
I don't know what I want to know nor what I ought to 

seek 
I never like to venture far for fear of running wide, 
And I haven't an} 7 notion how I ever can decide." 

Of ringworm I hold positively, — 
(i.) That it is a constitutional 
complaint. (2.) That it is gener- 
ated by the together-being of num- 
bers of young people in close spaces 
i. e., by their personal emanations, 
or anthropotoxine. (3.) That it is 
so to speak, "subtuberculosis." 
(4.) That it is curable by its patho- 
logic simi/limum jhere termed Bacil- 
linum, in high potency, internally 
and infrequently administered. (5.) 
That the mycosis is merely the 
concomitant external manifestation 
of the disease and not the disease 
itself. (6.) That the external 



and Cure of Ringworm. 119 

treatment of the disease is irra- 
tional, unscientific, and, probably, 
harmful to the patient. (7.) That 
it is commonly bred in schools. 
(8.) That truly healthy children 
cannot catch it because the fungus 
cannot grow upon such. (9.) There 
is, therefore, no reason why a ring- 
wormy child should be excluded 
from school life or the company of 
its fellows in home life (10.) 
And, finally, that the trichophyton 
of ringworm is to ringworm what 
the bacillus of Koch is to tuber- 
culosis, — the trichophyton and the 
bacillus being, moreover, nearly 
related to one another. 



INDEX. 



Agnosticism in medicine, 117. 

Anthropotoxine, 113, 118. 

Bacillic virus, 13, 15. 

Bacillinum, 17, 18, 24, 27, 28, 36, 37, 38, 
39, 41, 42, 50, 52/53, 54. 67, 91. 

Bacillus of tuberculosis, in, 113, 119. 

Burnett, Dr. J. C, Diseases of the Skin 
from the Organismic Standpoint, 3, 
27. 

Burnett, Dr. J. C, Five Years' Experi- 
ence in the New Cure of Consump- 
tion by its own Virus, 11, 37. 

Cases reported, 12, 13, 14, 22, 37, 40, 52, 
53, 80, 90. 

Cattle affected by ringworm, 31. 

Concluding thoughts, 101. 

Condy's patent fluid, 105, 107. 

Consumption, Five Years' Experience in 
the New Cure of, by its own Virus, 

«i 37- 

Consumption, virus of, 11; influence of, 
on teeth, 12; on ringworm, 12, 14. 



122 Index. 

Cooke's, Dr. M. C, Fungi: their Nature, 
Influence, and Uses, 92, 96. 

Cooke, Dr. M. C, on the hollyhock dis- 
ease, 102. 

Eczema marginatum, 38, 39. 

Fox, Dr. Tilbury, on avoidance of fat in 
diet, 64. 

Fox, Dr. Tilbury, on conidia of trichophy- 
ton, 77. 

Fox, Dr. Tilbury, on obstinacy of ring- 
worm, 81. . 

Gardener's Chronicle, writer in, 103. 

Grove, W. B., Bacteria and Yeast Fungi, 
98. 

Grub} 7 's discovery of fungus, 57. 

Hallier on trichophyton and penicillium, 

97- 

Herpes circinnatus (ringworm of the sur- 
face) treated by sepia, 10. 

Herpes s. tinea tonsurans (ringworm), 7. 

Herpes tonsurans, 58, 97. 

Hollyhock disease, the, 102. 

Holmes, E. M., British Fungi, etc., 99. 

Hughes' Manual of Therapeutics. 10, 11. 



Index. 123 

Kobner inoculated ringworm, 29. 

Koch stranded, 47. 

Malmsten, in Stockholm, describes para- 
site Trichophyton tonsurans, 57. 

Medicine, agnosticism in, 117. 

Morbillinum, 52. 

Morris, M., on ringworm, 63. 

Mycology, literature of, generally, 92. 

Mycolog}^, standpoint as regards ring- 
worm, 95. 

Neumann on ringworm and eczema 

marginatum, 38. 
Neumann, results of his experiments, 

97- 
Pasteur on spores of fungi, 96. 
Penicillium, 96, 97. 
Pityriasis versicolor, 39. 
Psora of the Homoeopaths, 9. 
Ringworm a constitutional complaint, 

118. 
Ringworm a fairly common complaint, 

17. 
Ringworm an external disease due to an 
external infection, the trichophyton, 
29, 118. 



124 Index. 

Ringworm an internal disease of the or- 
ganism, 21. 

Ringworm as studied by Alder Smith, 
M. B., 58-89. 

Ringworm, cases of, 12, 13, 14, 22, 37, 
4°> 5 2 > 53> 80, 90. 

Ringworm caught from cows, 36. 

Ringworm, concluding thoughts on, 101. 

Ringworm cured by Bacillinum, 17, 
18, 24, 27, 28, 36, 37, 38, 42, 54, 
118. 

Ringworm, Dr. Tilbury Fox on, 64, 77, 
81. 

Ringworm due to a specific fungus, 7. 

Ringworm, healthy children do not 
catch, 5, 44, 119. 

Ringworm (Herpes s. tinea tonsurans), 7. 

Ringworm in cattle, 31. 

Ringworm in general survey in litera- 
ture, 56. 

Ringworm inoculated by Kobner, 29. 

Ringworm, is it due to dirt? 82. 

Ringworm is parasitic, 19. 119. 

Ringworm, literature of, and of mycol- 
ogy, generally, 92, 118. 



Index. 125 

Ringworm of the surface (Herpes circin- 

natus)treated by sepia and tellurium, 

10. 
Ringworm, proper, of the scalp, treated 

by sepia or sulphurous acid, 11. 
Ringworm regarded from the standpoint 

of general mycology, 92. 
Ringworm, selection of a treatment for, 

86. 
Ringworm, treatment of, by external 

means, unsatisfactory, 20. 

Sepia in Herpes circinnatus, 10. 

Sepia in ringworm proper of the scalp, 
11, 19, 27. 

Skin, Diseases of the, from the Organis- 
mic Standpoint, 3. 27. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., chronic pustular 
ringworm, 75. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., diagnosis of ring- 
worm which has existed some time, 
68. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., diffuse ringworm, 
74> 90. 



126 Index. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., disseminated ring- 
worm, 73. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., on heads or infected 
articles, 78. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., on ringworm, 
58-89. 

Smith, Alder, M. B., small spots, 76. 

Sulphur, 19, 27. 

Sulphurous acid in ringworm proper of 
the scalp, 11. 

Sutton, Bland, Evolution and Disease, 
115. 

Tellurium in treatment of Herpes circin- 
natus, 10, 19, 27. 

Tinea circinata 52, 

Tongue, yellow-coated, 4. 

Trichophyton, 29, 97, 98, 111, 119. 

Virus of consumption, 11, 13. 

Willan on ringworm, 57. 



T. B. & H. B. Cochran, Printers, 

LANCASTER, PA. 



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